Computer systems typically comprise a combination of computer programs and hardware, such as semiconductors, transistors, chips, circuit boards, cards, storage devices, and processors, which are referred to as resources. The computer programs are stored in the storage devices and are executed by the processors.
Computer resource requirements for business and government applications often increase over a time period due to sales growth. Yet, over the same time period, the resource requirements may fluctuate significantly due to the inevitable peaks and valleys of day-to-day operations or from the increased loads for seasonal, period-end, or special promotions. Thus, the peak resource requirements within a time period may be dramatically more than the valley resource requirements. Hence, in order to be effective, the computerized resources of a business must be sufficient to meet the current fluctuating needs of the business, as well as projected needs due to growth.
When faced with these fluctuating and ever-increasing resource demands, a customer often needs to purchase computing resources capable of accommodating at least the peak requirements while planning for future requirements, which are almost certain to be elevated. As a result, customers face the prospect of investing in more computerized resources than are immediately needed in order to accommodate growth and operational peaks and valleys. Thus, at a given time, the customer may have excess computing capacity, which is a very real cost. Such costs can represent a major, if not preclusive, expenditure for the customer, who may have insufficient capital or time to react to rapid growth and fluctuating requirements.
To address this problem, computing architectures such as a capacity on demand design, allow customers to effectively rent or lease resources on an as-needed or on-demand basis. More particularly, customers may temporarily enable standby resources that are initially dormant or unused within their machine. Where desired, the standby resources are not included in the up-front, baseline cost of the machine. As such, for a relatively smaller initial capital investment, a customer may activate and deactivate standby or on-demand resources as needed for a fee, which provides the customer with customized access and optimized usage.